Darktide’s overall balance is still lackluster, especially in regards to Enemies and Weapon Balance, so I wanted to take some time to address a specific aspect of the latter and how I think adjustments to it could greatly improve the experience. And that specific aspect is, as it should be no surprise, Damage Over Time Effects. DoT Effects are something that every class has access to in some form, and in the game we have a total of 4 Options: Electrocution, Burning, Bleeding, and Soulfire. Electrified Enemies will take damage and can enter a “Shocked” state, where they will stop moving or attacking. But what about the others? Enemies w/ Bleeding, Soulfire, or Burning Stacks don’t really do anything to indicate what kind of stacks they have on them, aside from die faster.
In short, DoT doesn’t really do anything aside from damage, and I believe that this is directly feeding into problems w/ weapon balance in the game, especially in regards to Psyker Staffs. It’s not surprising to me that the Electrokinetic Staff, the only staff that has no way to naturally generate Soulfire, is the Psyker’s Weakest Staff. The Voidblast and Voidstrike can generate it on Crit, and the Inferno Staff, Psyker most used Ranged weapon I would argue, does it at base.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if someone took issue with the idea of Electrocution being counted as a DoT in the first place. As far as some basic testing can show, weapons like the Shock Maul will only cause a target to take further damage for a tick or two after the secondary attack, and for very little damage at that. And despite the Electrokinetic Secondary shooting lighting it doesn’t seem to generate any DoT effect once you let go of the trigger. The fact that Shocked Enemies don’t move or attack is almost a worthwhile benefit until you remember that a dead enemy also doesn’t attack or move, in addition to not being a target you have to worry about, and giving you toughness and other benefits depending on your build.
Lack of DoT Functionality hurts every class because it results in a lack of build and role diversity, but it hurts Psyker in particular because their overall Weapon and Class Balance is tied so directly to DoT, specifically Soulfire. Fatshark can’t truly increase Psyker’s power in any meaningful way because any Increase to Damage will only result in the Inferno Staff, a ranged weapon with infinite cleave and infinite ammo, becoming even more powerful, which in turn will only stagnate Weapon and Build Meta even more than it already is. But there is a way to improve DoT; it just requires decoupling them from damage.
To better illustrate my point, I want to use a different game as an example: Killing Floor 3. In KH3, there are Afflictions not dissimilar to the typical DoTs, such as Bleed and Burn. But there also a wealth of non-elemental Afflictions like Stumble, Panic, and Confusion. These afflictions don’t focus on Damage, but secondary effects, and they’re typically paired w/ the DoT Afflictions; for example, a lot of Burn Weapons will also inflict Panic. Now, I don’t assume that all or even any of these Afflictions could translate to the game, but as similar as Darktide is to Vermintide, the games are very different, and I think it’s worthwhile for Fatshark to look at mechanics from other games in the genre when evolving their own.
Not every DoT needs some kind of specialized effect. Burn being a counter to regenerating enemies is already a worthwhile. But giving a secondary benefit can help expand build options. Maybe an enemy who dies w/ full Burn Stacks could have a chance to explode. Perhaps Bleeding enemies could move and/or attack slower, and at full stacks they deal significantly less damage. Maybe Electrocuted enemies have a higher chance to enter the Shocked state for every tick, and ones that die w/ max stacks with send of a chain of lighting to other nearby enemies, spreading the effect. But the one I really want to tackle is Soulfire, since it is the specific DoT holding Psyker back.
In Lore, part of the reason why Plague Marines are so durable is due to the fact that they quite literally can’t feel their bodies. And the Chaos Tainted Plague working its way through Tertium very specifically traps the soul inside the rotting body of its victim. If Soulfire burns away the soul of its target, burns away their connection to The Grandfather, then I would imagine that target would feel the weight of their decaying bodies far more clearly. Soulfire effectively acting as Brittleness for Stagger and at max stacks Stumble would still give a lot of value to builds utilizing it. It would give the Inferno Staff a distinctive role from the Flamer, and make it so weapons like the Force Swords w/ Blazing Spirit inherent safety for melee Psyker builds. To be clear, I don’t think you could just drop effects like this into the game; work will have to be done to balance the secondary effects of DoT. But the bigger point I’m trying to convey is that by de-emphasizing DoT damage Fatsharks designers would be free to raise the power of other weapons in general and the power of Psyker Class Tree specifically.